A Guide for Giving to Christian Charities

As individual Christians, we have a Biblical mandate to help those in need and expand the work of evangelism around the world. Before you give to Christian charities or any non-profit organization, please check them out first, and make sure they are good financial stewards. To do this, I would recommend:

They oversee Christian organizations that have a 501-c-3 and choose to submit to the ECFA for financial transparency. If an organization will not join the ECFA, it may be because its financial management is not what it should be. From their website: “ECFA enhances trust in Christ-centered churches and ministries by establishing and applying Seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship™ to accredited organizations. Founded in 1979, ECFA provides accreditation to leading Christian nonprofit organizations that faithfully demonstrate compliance with established standards for financial accountability, transparency, fundraising, and board governance.”

A watchdog organization that seeks to inform donors of financial background to help them regarding their giving. From their website: “It provides information on organizations alleging to be charitable and its key leadership in order to identify materially misleading behavior, or wasteful spending practices, as well as identifying those operations that are above board and running efficiently. The objective is to limit consequences of scams and prevention of fraudulent activity, promote better allocations of giving, encourage intelligent questions of organizational structure, financial health, and advance the idea of organizational transparency and best practices. It provides information on organizations alleging to be charitable and its key leadership in order to identify materially misleading behavior, or wasteful spending practices, as well as identifying those operations that are above board and running efficiently. The objective is to limit consequences of scams and prevention of fraudulent activity, promote better allocations of giving, encourage intelligent questions of organizational structure, financial health, and advance the idea of organizational transparency and best practices. ”

While not a Christian organization, Charity Navigator seeks to help provide additional information to donors for all types of non-profit organizations, religious or non-religious. From their website: “Founded in 2001, Charity Navigator has become the nation’s largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities. In our quest to help donors, our team of professional analysts has examined tens of thousands of non-profit financial documents. We’ve used this knowledge to develop an unbiased, objective, numbers-based rating system to assess over 9,000 of America’s best-known and some lesser known, but worthy, charities.

“Specifically, Charity Navigator’s rating system examines two broad areas of a charity’s performance; their Financial Health and their Accountability & Transparency. Our ratings show givers how efficiently we believe a charity will use their support today, how well it has sustained its programs and services over time and their level of commitment to good governance, best practices and openness with information. In the not-too-distant future, we plan to also rate charities’ reporting of their results. We provide these ratings so that charitable givers/ social investors can make intelligent giving decisions, and so that the nonprofit sector can improve its performance.”

These organizations will help you make a more informed decision when you choose to donate. As the old adage says, “Do your giving while you’re living, so you’re knowing where it’s going.”

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Biblical Worldview is maintained by Israel Wayne, author and popular conference speaker. Over the years, he has spoken on worldview and apologetics issues at churches, conferences and events across the country and world.